Hi, it's me again. I just want to thank you for reading my story. I'll update soon.

"Hey Lola, want some wine? I'll get some from the cellar."

"How 'bout some ice cold cider to go with that snowflake?" A male voice chirped happily out of nowhere.

Who just spoke? "Um, ok sure, thanks Ness." I wonder if she heard that voice. Maybe it was a ghost. I don't see anyone around here, at least not a boy. I have to find that ghost before it haunts me. "I'll just stay up here, protect your stuff from Marrienne."

"Hello there. You have no idea that I exist, do you? Maybe you're too old too believe. I'm wasting my time here." Again the boy's voice rings in my head. I notice something at the window, a flash of blue and white, but it quickly disappears. Just in case, I fling open the cracked windows and scan the area around Nessa's room. I look left to right, on the path, up and down, but I don't see anything. I probably just imagined it. I turn around disappointedly, to put me face to face with a boy. He looks about 16, and has unusually white hair and stunning, zircon blue eyes. His skin is so pale, he looks a bit like marble. "Easy there miss, I didn't mean to scare you." He says suddenly as I step backwards, tripping over one of Nessa's books that she always lines up across the floor. A freezing cold hand grasps mine and sends a small shiver down my spine. Why is his skin like ice? Had he climbed in through the window? Would he leave before Ness came back with our 'wine'? What would she do if she saw him?

"Lollie? Do you want red or white, or a little of both?" Too late.

I take another glance at the boy with snow-like skin, and he quickly helps me up onto my feet. "Don't worry about your friend. She won't see me. Thanks for believing in me." The boy does a little bow. "I didn't quite catch your name," He looks at me with a questioning look, waiting for an answer.

"Oh, um sorry, um, Lauren. M-my name's Lauren" I stutter. He really is quite beautiful. I'm not in love, I'm just stating a fact. I only mean the colours of his eyes and skin are breathtaking. I wonder who's brother he is. I remember m brother, before he went crazy. This boy looks so much better. His eyes are so pretty, They sparkle with the fire of a diamond and the colour of blue zircon.

I hear a thump and realise someone is coming up the stairs. "Here you go." I jump and whirl around as Nessa bursts through the door, two bottles in her arms. I look back at the boy, but he's gone. How, I don't know. Maybe through the window. Maybe...

"Hey, who were you talking to?" Ness breaks my trance and looks straight into my multi-coloured eyes. I don't think she'll believe me if I tell her.

"No one." I walk over and close the window, which exhibits a thick coating of ice that looks like dawsonite. I quickly cover it with my palms, feeling the cool glass on my fingertips. If she saw it, I'm sure Nessa would have nightmares. We once saw a movie about a man who freezes little girls and steals their heat. I try to distract her. "Is that mine?" I ask, pointing to the bottle of clear, bubbly liquid.

"Oh yeah, you never said what you wanted. Also, we'll have to drink fast, 'cos as soon as mum gets home we're going to the beach!" I almost forgot why I was here. I'm not here for the sake of escaping my mother, I'm here to get into the freezing cold water and help Nessa to get over her fear, the ocean. Her uncle was a famous swimmer, until an accident that caused his quick demise. A rescue gone wrong, essentially. He was swimming out to save someone else when he saw a dark shadow in the water. Another shiver earns me a strange look from Ness, as I conjure up the image in my mind. "Why are you acting so weird all of a sudden?" I smile warmly at her and take a bottle out of her small hands to investigate the label.

"I'm not" I reply, turning the bottle over. "And this is over it's due date. Actually, who cares?" I say, using my teeth to pop the lid off the bottle. "It's only a day over, and its apple. My favourite." Our 'wine' is actually just flavoured fizzy drinks, grape and apple soda. We only call it wine because we drink it out of wine glasses. And it sort of resembles the alcohol liquid that Nessa's mum drinks with her dinner. I wish that my mum still drank wine at the dinner table with my cousins and I. Now, she switches to going out every night and getting drunk, wasting money on taxis and usually not even coming home that same night. If she does ever get home from the pub early, she bursts into my room, expecting to catch me still awake and reading, but I've learnt from past experience to hide my book when I hear a car pulling into a driveway. My life used to be perfect. Now, the best thing about it is getting away from my mother.

If I can find the boy that I met before, maybe he could be my fill in brother. I don't even know what it's like to have a brother look out for me. Even before Dylan went crazy, he still didn't care about me. I was just a little nuisance, getting in the way and scaring off his friends with my obsession with crystals. He hated me and he hated my happy personality. He wasn't like a brother, but I had never known anything else.

"Can you get the cups Lollie? My legs hurt and I can't reach anyway." Nessa pleads, before grabbing my wrist and whispering to me, "Look out for Kenneth. He's got his girlfriend over, and it is utterly disgusting."

"I shall avoid them at all costs, I promise." I say, crossing my heart with my fingers.

"Don't look for them like I know you want to. I know that last time you were the one who hid a whoopee cushion under the sofa seat."

I raise my arms in protest. "I would never do such a thing!"

"You did though, remember? Anyway, don't do anything stupid, and try to get the cups without breaking them."

"Bye, It's the longest walk of my life in 3, 2, 1, here I go" I drop myself down onto my knees on the first stair, and slide the whole way down, earning myself a huge carpet burn.

"Ow, that looks like it hurt" the boy's voice appears again, mocking me as I smack my knees into the solid ground of the first floor. I stand up quickly and look around, spotting Kenneth. "Your friend told you not to." White boy sang into my ear.

"You eavesdropper!" I loudly whisper back to him. "Were you spying on me?" I walk into the kitchen and stand on my tippy toes, reaching for the two wine glasses that had 'Reserved for special guests' written on them. My fingers skim the edge of the closest cup, pushing it back further into the cupboard. "Which genius put our glasses this far back?" I mutter under my breath.

The white boy stares into the back of my head, then sighs in frustration, as another attempt of mine fails to reward me. "Need help, snowflake?" He says, grabbing me by the waist and hoisting me up. Not wasting my opportunity to feel tall, I grab our glasses and hold onto the tightly. "You know there was a chair you could've stood on?" A finger points towards a small stool that would've made my life a lot easier. "Careful with those cups!" He yells, diving to catch Nessa's glass before it hits the ground. I didn't even realise I had dropped it. He places the cup back into my hand and squeezed my fingers around the handle. "Hold on tightly, ok? I have to go, I'll see you later." He starts to walk off, then stops and turns around when I yell.

"What's your name?" He looks at me as if thinking, then answers.

"Jack Frost."